New Girl, which you can stream with a Disney+ subscription, is the kind of TV show you put on to feel the comfort of a friend. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry - maybe both at the same time - and you’ll fall in love with it all over again, no matter how many times you’ve seen it. (Is it just me? Nope.) A big part of that endurance comes from not just loving the characters separately, but loving the whole ensemble, so the thought of any of the actors not playing exactly the role they were cast in makes me shudder.
One of TV’s funniest sitcoms, New Girl debuted in 2011, as Jessica Day (Zooey Deschanel) needed a new place to live after finding out that her long-term boyfriend cheated on her. Her world expanded with roommates Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris), and they became inseparable for seven seasons. But that fantastic foursome almost didn’t happen, in its current ensemble. Here’s what Zooey Deschanel said about it on the Zach Sang Show:
Lamorne was the one that we had to fight for, ‘cause he had come in for Coach but then didn’t test ‘cause he had gotten an offer on another pilot that didn’t end up going. And then when the Coach role ended up going away, ‘cause Damon [Wayans Jr.] had to leave, then we had the Winston character, [and] we had other people come in. We had so many people coming in, and I was reading with every single person.
Zooey went on to explain that Jake Johnson and Max Greenfield both became part of the New Girl cast early on. She also knew Hannah Simone should be Jess’s best friend when she saw her smart, deadpan approach to CeCe. The Coach role was tougher to cast, and while they loved Damon Wayans Jr., he had to return to his own show, Happy Endings, leaving a void after the pilot. And then, Lamorne Morris reentered the picture.
The man who brought Winston Bishop to life originally auditioned for the Coach character, before his role was ultimately created. During that time, he had already made an impression on his future co-stars, who all went to bat for him when they needed to round out the ensemble. Zooey continued:
I was just like, ‘What about Lamorne? That guy’s so good. He’s so talented.’ And Jake loved him and Max loved him. They all knew him ‘cause they’d all been in the audition process together originally. And so we kind of did this thing where I wrote to the heads of the studio and the network, and Jake wrote to [executive producer] Jake Kasdan, maybe. Like, everyone was writing to somebody different. So we’re all like, ‘Just putting my two cents in. We think Lamorne is the best, best, best for this character and such a great addition.’
When the chemistry is there, you can feel it, so it’s not surprising that Lamorne Morris rose above the rest for everyone in the cast. And since wrapping the series in 2018, his career has continued to rise as he went on to join the list of 2024 Emmy winners, for his role in Fargo Season 5. (Fans can also see him in the 2026 TV series Spider-Noir, streaming via Amazon Prime subscription.) Thankfully, though, the gut instinct of the New Girl cast won out, and the actor meant to play Winston stepped into the role. Deschanel said:
I was like, ‘I can’t see anyone else playing this part. And I know they’re gonna see it eventually.’ But, yeah, he was the one everyone was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ And, now, I’m like, ‘Guys, he has an Emmy. He’s killing it.’
You can hear the willingness the New Girl cast had to ensure the best actor would step into the role in the words of Jess, herself, in the full clip at:
The comedy is largely considered one of the most rewatchable TV shows ever, and the love it still has makes it ripe for a revival. Who wouldn’t want to see that loveable ensemble together again, especially when they clearly enjoy hanging out together? Back in 2024, Lamorne Morris made it clear that it would take all of them being on board for that to be a possibility and said it was Jake Johnson keeping a New Girl revival from happening. Until then, we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that the stars might someday align for new episodes.
